The Black Hand, vol.46

“An enigma that remains unsolved is an enigma that keeps its fascination”

I’m going to describe a certain type of guy to you, okay? Tell me if you recognize him.

He’s an unassuming person, “slight and boyish, but…grown rather doughy by his late 30s”, largely “unglamorous”, someone who leads “a sedentary life in the half-light of the margins”. He’s a “lover of cinema”, whose experience of it was as “an assistant on the sets of a few minor pornographic movies”. But he also has some unusual interests, and when he discusses them, he “grows quite animated”; in fact, he has “an encyclopaedic knowledge of his preferred subjects”. At dinner parties, he will “hold forth on the matter of serial killing” – he is a “charming young man…with an extreme attraction to the macabre”.

I could be describing a serial murderer. Or I could be describing a fan – someone like Stéphane Bourgoin.

Bourgoin, from humble beginnings, developed a reputation as France’s primary expert on serial killers. He claimed to have interviewed nearly 80 of them in his day, and consulted with John Douglas and the FBI: He was even made an honorary FBI investigator. He told everyone that his fascination with serial offenders was inspired by the murder of his first wife.

But a group of true crime fans began picking holes in Bourgoin’s claims and his reputation. They even wrote to the killers who Bourgoin claimed to have interviewed. Everything they found only revealed more lies, ‘borrowings’ from other investigators’ work, and plagiarism.

When the group couldn’t find a reputable outlet that would agree to share their findings – because of the risk of insulting or slandering Bourgoin – they began posting their information on Youtube under the banner “Serial Mytho’. The videos took off, and true crime fans were horrified. Finally, Bourgoin was exposed.

The links and articles for this were all sent to my by a friend, and this whole story is such a trip – it reminds me a lot of the story about Richard Walter (the fake ‘profiler’ who started the Vidocq Society), but also, it’s like these guys could potentially swing either way?? Like, maybe we’re lucky they just became fraudulent ‘serial killer experts’ because otherwise, they might become serial killers themselves…

All Shall Mourn is doing pretty damn great

A month ago, I released a new book. I published it myself! While I knew some people out there were excited to read it, I really didn’t anticipate this amazing groundswell of support from everyone (it seems like) who’s ever read None Shall Sleep and got invested.

I continue to be heartwarmed – and somewhat gobsmacked – by how enthusiastically All Shall Mourn has been received.

As of today, it’s still in the Top 20 of ebooks in its categories, and Top 50 for paperbacks.

It only lost the “No.1 New Release” orange banner thingie like, yesterday.

It has 74 Amazon ratings, and (last count) about 530 ratings on GoodReads – and its star rating has averaged around 4.15 out of 5, far out. (Oh, and if you’d like to add a review of the book on either GR or Amazon, I’d be grateful!)

Overall, this book has been successful beyond anything I could’ve imagined. That rocks.

And yes, I wrote the thing, but it’s not like I bought all those books myself – you folks did that. Thank you again, it’s been a truly amazing ride 🖤

Signed copies, hopefully soon

I’m getting a ton of requests for signed copies of All Shall Mourn!

If you’ve been asking “signed copies, what’s up with that?”, here’s what I know:

💀 My website manager is organising it;

💀 I am not a computer gal, I am a words gal, I prefer to play to my strengths and let a computer person do their thing, so yeah, I’m not doing the organising;

💀 Signed copies will be available on the Merch page of my website;

💀 My website manager has been a bit under the gun, so it’s taking us a minute to get it set up;

💀 Once it’s set up, I’ll make a big announcement on socials;

💀 Everyone who says, “what’s happening with signed copies?” will then be referred to that announcement!;

💀 If you’ve emailed me about it – I will also send you an alert to say signed copies are go.

So if you’ve been holding your breath a while, you won’t have to hold on much longer!

After signed copies go live on my website, and I’ve got a handle on that, we’ll turn our attention to a couple other things (audiobook, maybe? Or potentially an Australian version of the paperback?) and see what we come up with.

Sorry I’m late with postage

On that note, things have been HECTIC AF here lately, and some things I meant to post out (bookplates! Giveaway books!) have been languishing, unposted. I’m very sorry! The post office is a 20 minute drive away! (also: see “deadline” below) I’ll get them sent this week, with my apologies, and try to do better 😬

I’m on deadline! (again)

Mainly the hectic is because I’ve been on deadline (yes! Still and again!).

My deadline period finishes 31 March, and by my count I have just under 100 pages left to write – yiiiikes. So I’ve been fully crunching on this book, and I’m hoping to hit my deadline target if I can stay on track.

This book is kind of a secret, as-yet-unannounced project [1] (this [1] is a footnote, I have footnotes now, see bottom of this email) with a new publisher that will release next year, god willing. Publishers don’t usually like to announce a book in the trades (Publishers Weekly etc) until closer to the release date, to build anticipation [2] (look, another footnote!), but as soon as I have confirmation of an announcement, I’ll ping you all.

(Also we can’t announce the book until we have a title, and sometimes titles take a long time to work out, I don’t know why. Yes, this book has a working title. But nobody wants to announce a book by saying “Ellie Marney’s upcoming new book, Working Title, through Such-and-Such Publisher…”

You see the conundrum.

But yeah, once we have a title and stuff, I’ll tell you folks first 😊)

Author events

Right now, thank god, I have none! Because honestly, when I’m on deadline, I have enough trouble remembering to put on pants in the morning. Being on deadline plus remembering to put on pants, appearing in public, and speaking in a way that sounds vaguely intelligent…All these things are right on the edge of my capacity at the moment.

I was going to go to a thing in Western Australia, but sadly I’m not going to make it. Soz, west coast friends – I’ll do my best to get over your way as soon as I can.

I answered a bunch of questions about self-publishing for Ask Alice over at the #LoveOzYA website, if you want to have a look!

I also gave an interview with Claire Fraise at her Youtube channel, which was a real blast! We talked thrillers and writing craft and all things bookish, so if you’d like to have a look or a listen, go here.

At the moment, I’m trying to sort out an appearance at Oz ComicCon in June – I’ll let you know when I’m sure that it’s happening!

I usually wear pants – would you like me to visit your school? LOL

I mean, when I’m not on deadline, I’m usually a completely normal person! And I’d be really happy if you wanted to invite me to your school event, literature festival, library night, or whatever else you have in mind. I will most definitely wear pants.

You can contact me here (elliemarney@gmailcom) if you’d like me to join in your event, and I’m happy to discuss my rates and the kinds of talks and workshops I provide.

NB: This year, I’m planning to offer special rates for government secondary schools who would like me to visit them during Book Week.

I’m still sorting out the details of this, but I’d like to visit more public high schools! I love public high schools – attended one, taught in a bunch of them, sent my kids to one – and I feel like crappy government budgets shouldn’t mean you miss out on seeing authors. Please stay tuned while I figure out the logistics, but I’ll keep updating.

What I’m doing - no, the other stuff

I may be on deadline, but occasionally I have to rest my brain in the evenings. I’d heard of this cool pair of indie US film makers called Moorhead & Benson, so I watched their first feature, Spring. And damn, it was really good!

The Bram Stoker awards are being voted on right now and you should check out the nominees because there’s a bunch of great books on this list.

MapQuest has created a “Name Your Own Gulf” resource and I think I’m going to put in a new weird word every day.

That’s it from me for March. Hope you’re doing okay 🖤 I hope you’ve got some great books to read! Please remember to put on pants.

Wish me deadline luck, stay cool until next month, see you on the other side!

xxEllie

[1] If you’re interested, I’ve been putting a lot more hints and behind-the-scenes thoughts about this secret book in my paywalled newsletter, Nailbiters. The closer this book comes to release, the more I’ll talk about it! (This is my not-so-subtle way of suggesting that if you want more info, you should sign up.)

[2] Which is crazy because I want everyone to start anticipating it now, but I guess you can get anticipation fatigue, so.